The COVID-19 pandemic inspired many scientists to analyze patient blood samples to better understand SARS-CoV-2 infection and the host immune response against this novel pathogen. Cytokines are particularly informative because they act as protein messengers and affect cellular functions such as inflammation. Furthermore, tracking cytokine levels over the course of an infection or analyzing them in the context of variable COVID-19 disease severities is necessary to guide diagnosis and treatment. However, plasma cytokine levels fluctuate, and they are often low in healthy controls, so researchers need to employ especially sensitive assays.
To gain the sensitivity and reproducibility that they need, scientists researching COVID-19 turned to Simple Plex™ assays run on the Ella™ instrument to detect cytokines in patient blood samples. These automated immunoassays simply require researchers to pipette their diluted samples and wash buffer into a microfluidic cartridge, press “start” in the software program connected to the Ella machine, and ...
